Panel: Conserve Chelmsford site

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com

Updated:
12/13/2012 06:34:04 AM EST

CHELMSFORD -- A committee that has spent a year debating the future of the Oak Hill property has recommended the 66-acre site be used for open-space conservation, with passive recreational uses such as hiking and camping.

The property should be transferred from the Board of Selectmen to the Conservation Commission after three years, the committee suggested, and a new committee should be formed to come up with a site plan for details like signage, parking on Swain Road, a right-of-way easement for access to the property and other property issues such as trails and a bridge for crossing a small stream, the recommendations said.

The site, between Dunstable and Swain roads and Route 3 on the northern edge of town, had been considered for affordable housing, industrial use, municipal or school uses, recreational fields or a solar-panel farm.

The largest town-owned site, it is now likely to be kept for conservation.

"I think it will be well accepted by the community," Town Manager Paul Cohen said.

A conservation restriction, which would ensure that the site won't be developed, would have to be approved by Town Meeting, selectmen and the commission. The recommendations are expected to be presented to selectmen in January.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Jon Kurland said open space is the best use for the undeveloped land.

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"We value our open space and this is a proper use of it," he said.

The recommended three-year timeframe would allow for finalizing and funding site-plan details, such as public-access points.

"It's going to be an absolute gem in North Chelmsford," Oak Hill Committee member Phil Stanway said on the Politically Incorrect Show on Chelmsford TeleMedia.

The recommendations, which the committee approved unanimously Dec. 5, call for "passive recreational uses" such as hiking and camping, as well as bans against hunting. The committee also recommended against residential, commercial or industrial uses, or billboards on the site.

A billboard has been considered for adjacent property between the Oak Hill site and Route 3 but has not gone out to bid.

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